Jasper RCMP have finished their investigation into the death of Jutta Dewers, the woman who was killed on the CN Rail tracks in December.

Police have ruled the death a suicide. It is the first death on the tracks in at least 30 years in Jasper.

On Dec. 9 Dewers’ body was discovered on the tracks by CN employees. She had been hit by a train, and engineers on a second train saw her body at the side of the tracks, police said.

Jasper RCMP confirmed Dewers’ identity through dental records, and worked with the German consulate to determine who the 41-year-old woman was.

She had been reported missing in late November, and according to police, had spent three days in Jasper.

Working with the German consulate and police, Jasper RCMP were able to determine that  Dewers was indeed in Canada, and had gone missing.
Dewers’ friends described her as a very loyal but difficult person to know.

“She seemed stiff at first sight, sometimes also absent, but she was a lovely and extremely generous woman. Jutta was very fond of animals, she would have done everything for them,” said Anja Hermesdorf, a friend and former co-worker of Dewers.

Dewers first travelled to Canada from Germany in hopes of securing a job in Vancouver in 2004. Her first attempt was unsuccessful, but she remained hopeful a second attempt would result in success. In March 2009, she worked in Calgary and Vancouver, fulfilling a lifelong dream of hers – a move she had hoped would be permanent. However it appears she lost her job, and travelled to Jasper on Dec. 6. Her friends said it would be very difficult for Dewers to return to Germany, failing to achieve her dreams.

“She was often very moody against other people. There were only two possibilities, either you were Jutta’s friend or foe, nothing in between. If you were a friend of hers, she would have done everything for you. She suffered with her friends and would have given her right arm for these people,” Hermesdorf said. “In the other case, if Jutta disliked somebody, she was the total opposite and you could not recognize her.”

Before coming to Canada, Dewers lived in a flat in Bremen, where she enjoyed reading and the cinema. She was also a frequent traveller.

“Jutta was often on her own, had only a few friends and loved to travel. She also loved to be far away from home. I cannot remember one single holiday of her inside Germany, hardly ever a holiday inside Europe. Instead she used to have destinations for her journeys, which were far away. It was her passion to do long-distance trips,” Hermesdorf said.